Same general experience. I have seen friends and former coworkers who I know are mediocre devs but good at talking themselves up get placed multiple times this year.

I've secured a single interview, company seemed like a great fit. System level Go apps, my bread and butter. No longer have to split my time with frontend? The dream.

On round 2 their CTO basically shut me down 2 minutes in saying they're unwilling to do any sort of training and only looking for existing experts in their very specific niche. In round 1 the interviewer told me I seemed like a very good candidate, very positive about my experience. Said they'd been looking for a long while and I was one of the most experienced Go backend developers they'd interviewed. Round 1 was frankly one of the most positive interviews I'd ever had. Got extreme whiplash as round 2 was cut short at about the ten minute mark.

I don't know for sure but I think a lot of companies are looking for an absolute Cinderella given the glut in applications. I don't think that guys going to find her.

It's been a couple months now, their job posting is still up. I'd have been well up to speed and making meaningful contributions by now.